A decennial tradition that dates back 220 years to the days of George Washington continues

today when federal census forms start arriving at more than 120 million households across the

United States.

But hanging over this 23rd U.S. census are concerns about a decline in participation.

While the U.S. census has always evoked some resentment toward the feds for poking their

nose into people's business, there's a sense that America's distrust of the government has

reached greater heights and could contribute to poor census returns.

Sixty-seven percent of U.S. households responded by mail in 2000.

"I am just amazed at the level of fear and mistrust and opposition to the census this time

around," said Michael Lavin, a University at Buffalo librarian and author of several books on

the U.S. census.

A lot of the paranoia seems come from the blogosphere, Lavin said, but the feelings are

widespread. He pointed to comments made last year by Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Republican from

Minnesota, who said she would fill out nothing more than the number of people in her household

for fear of the information being abused.

"I have never seen this kind of backlash," Lavin said. "I wouldn't call it mainstream now,

but it's much more prevalent."

Audrey Singer, a demographer with the Brookings Institute, a Washington-based think tank,

offers a few explanations.

This is the first census since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which led to broader

government surveilance powers and, in turn, made many Americans more suspicious of Uncle Sam.

A crackdown on people living illegally in this country may make the immigrant community

more leery of participating in the census, even though there are no questions about

citizenship or immigration status.

Rising identity theft is also on the minds of Americans.

"There are just a lot of people in the United States who are wary about giving out personal

information," Singer said.

The Census Bureau is well aware of the public's suspicions.

But it vows the forms remain confidential and stresses the importance of participating in

the national count, which dates back to 1790, when U.S. marshals were dispatched to tally a

nation of 3.9 million.

The U.S. census is used to:

Determine the number of state seats in the House of Representatives.

Draw boundaries for congressional, state and local legislative districts.

Distribute more than $446 billion a year in federal aid — almost $2 billion of

which goes to the Buffalo Niagara region.

To encourage participation in 2010, the Census Bureau embarked on an unprecedented

advertising campaign, which included the controversial decision to spend $2.5 million for

spots during the Super Bowl.

One change, in particular, may work in the Census Bureau's favor this year.

It discontinued the long form, which aroused much of the public's ire because of its

probing questions about topics ranging from mortgage payments to commute times.

That information is still being asked on a survey sent annually to a sampling of U.S.

households, but now the decennial census can focus on accurately counting the more than 300

million Americans.

"This is the shortest one in history — 10 questions," said Robert Coffey, manager of

the Buffalo census office. "It shouldn't be a big deal."

Race, age, sex, number of people in the home and their relationship to others in the

household are among the questions on the census.

While the wording may be a bit different, it's essentially the same form from 10 years ago,

Lavin said.

"The interesting thing about the 2010 form is it has a little more explanation," Lavin

said. "It asks two questions explicitly that it had not before: "Were there any additional

people you didn't count?' And secondly, "Does the person sometimes stay somewhere else?' "

"The bureau is trying to do two things," Lavin explained, "make sure they don't miss anyone

and do the best they can at not double counting people."

Singer noted one other challenge for the Census Bureau in 2010: the foreclosure crisis,

which has uprooted many Americans from their homes.

"That could complicate things for people both receiving forms and filling out forms,"

Singer said.

Still, the Census Bureau is hoping to get a high percentage of people mailing back forms,

or else it will have to spend more money to send additional census takers door to door.

For every 1 percent of households that respond by mail, taxpayers save about $85 million,

the Census Bureau estimates.

"Take 10 minutes, fill it out and pop it in the mail" in the postage-paid envelope, said

Frank Yavicoli, manager of the Census Bureau office in Amherst, "and we won't bother you."